Gateway to The Stars
by andrewjameswilliams
Summary: Companion story to This Isn't Kansas. In the aftermath of the battle with the Goa'uld Ashur the United Earth Government authorizes new Stargate missions to begin.


_**Gateway to The Stars**_

 **Disclaimer: I do not own the characters that I am about to mangle around for my own amusement – sadly all Stargate and Robotech characters remain the property of MGM and Harmony Gold respectively – I am merely borrowing them and make absolutely no profit from their use. As a result, please keep the legal attack dogs, also known as lawyers, firmly muzzled and on a leash as I have no money to give anyone.**

 **Author Notes: This a spin-off story of my This Isn't Kansas story that will be following the adventures of the fusion universes take on Stargate Command and how they fit into the wider story. You need to have read the main story up to the end of chapter twelve otherwise this story will not make a whole lot of sense.**

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 **Prologue**

 **United Earth Defence Command**

 **Alaska Base, Alaska**

Silence reigned in the meeting chamber of the United Earth Defence Council as the twenty-member body carefully reviewed all the reports and analysis of the battle with the Goa'uld that had taken place near Mars. A battle that had seen all three of the encroaching Goa'uld Ha'tak-class motherships – which according to the information provided by the _Odyssey_ were quite formidable vessels and fully capable of eliminating all life on Earth in mere hours – be destroyed with no real damage being sustained by their own forces. The immense firepower of both the particle beam weapons reverse engineered from the SDF-1 and the ion cannons – whose design like so much of their newest technology had been provided by the universally displaced _Odyssey_ crew – allowing them to triumph over the forces of the megalomaniacal parasites.

The swift, relatively easy, defeat of this first Goa'uld incursion into Terran space in several millennia would, under most circumstances, have filled the council with glee and confidence in their defence plans and arrangements. However, that was not possible now as something had happened, something that had somewhat soured what would normally be the sweet taste of an easy victory. That something was the commander of the Goa'uld ships, a Lord Ashur, had at the last minute been able to use a Goa'uld cargo ship to escape their forces vanishing into hyperspace while the self-destruction of his disabled mothership provided him with cover.

"How could Lord Ashur have possibly been able to escape like that?" Senator Russo asked breaking the silence in the room. "From what I understand a Goa'uld cargo ship has no weapons and only minimal energy shielding, the _Defender_ should have been easily able to disable it and transport Ashur aboard."

"While that is true there is something you are forgetting senator," General Landry said leaning forward slightly from where he sat acting as a special advisor to the defence council.

"And what would that be, general," Russo asked inwardly a little irritated at the extra-universal general speaking up and wishing not for the first time that he could have him dismissed from the council. Unfortunately, that had proven impossible as the _Odyssey_ crew's knowledge and technology was too valuable to them to risk alienating them. Not to mention their knowledge of the Stargate – which had already paid some dividends as they now had two small out system outposts where they were mining that extremely useful naquada mineral – and the insights they'd been able to provide into the psychology and tactics of the Goa'uld System Lords.

"What your forgetting senator is the nature of the Goa'uld sublight propulsion technology," Hank explained. "Like all Goa'uld vessels a Tel'tak is equipped with an extremely sophisticated inertialess sublight engine. Which provides it with an incredible degree of manoeuvrability and acceleration for a ship its size. As a fleet lord Ashur would naturally be a gifted pilot having literally had a few millennia to hone his skills it is thus not impossible for him to have dodged the handful of ion blasts that would have been able to have been fired in the time between leaving his mothership and its destruction.

"Which would be all he would need to do to escape as the detonation of the motherships main reactors and hyperdrive, not to mention the naquada in the hull would have created both a massive radiation burst and a subspace blast wave," Hank continued. "Which would have been more than strong enough to momentarily blind the _Defender's_ sensors and break any targeting locks that would have been achieved."

"Is there anything that can be done to prevent that occurring in the future?" General Takashi asked looking at his extra-universal air force counterpart in interest.

"I think so I will have to speak with Colonel Carter though as she knows more about that kind of thing than I do," Hank replied already knowing what Sam would say. That if you used Asgard sensors – instead of the more basic Goa'uld-level sensors they'd so far supplied this Earth with the designs for – then you would easily see through such a radiation burst. He was loath to provide those sensors to this Earth as he was mindful of the fact that he would really have to explain all the tech sharing to the Pentagon and the IOA if they were ever to get back home. Though the longer they remained trapped in this universe the less likely it was that they'd have a home to go back to, not to mention there had already been some signs among his crew of individuals beginning to pair off with people from this reality.

"So, there is nothing that could have been done to stop Ashur escaping?" Russo asked knowing he'd already lost any chance of turning the Goa'uld's escape to his own – and his backers - advantage. Though honestly there had not been much chance of that in the first place given how easily the Goa'uld attack had been repulsed.

"Not in the time Captain Harding and his crew had no."

"So now what do we do?" General Takashi asked calmly. "Ashur is sure to tell whoever he serves what happened here today, thus the System Lords will become aware of us and that we're advanced enough to be a threat."

Silence greeted his comment as every member of the council knew that he spoke the truth. As much as they would like it to be otherwise the plan to keep their heads down of the galactic stage until they were ready had pretty much been shot to hell. They would now be on the Goa'uld radar so to speak as a human world that was advanced enough to be a threat to the egotistical, megalomaniacal parasites and their self-proclaimed divine rite to rule as gods over as much of the galaxy as they could get their hands on. From the _Odyssey_ crew's testimony, they all knew that the Goa'uld would not stand for such a thing, they'd only left Earth in the _Odyssey's_ reality alone due to its inclusion in the Protected Planets Treaty with the Asgard. A race that sadly didn't seem to exist here or had but had either gone extinct or ascended some time ago.

"The only thing we can do is continue with what we were doing," Admiral Hayes said breaking the silence after several tenses, edgy moments. "We will soon be getting shipments of refined trinium from Mars as well as naquada from our out-system mining operations. Coupled with the improved construction and anti-gravity technology General Landry's provided us with" he nodded at the other man who nodded in acknowledgement "we will soon have our fleet and defence network construction projects going at full steam."

"We could and indeed should do that," General Aidan Robinson answered leaning forward slightly. "But we can also begin doing far more than that. Especially now that the new base in the Alphonsus Crater on the moon has been completed."

Russo looked at the Australian in interest. "What do you propose," he asked already knowing that the proposal was sure to have something to do with the Stargate as not only had General Robinson been put in charge of everything relating to the gate, but he'd also personally overseen the construction of the base in the Alphonsus Crater – a base that had been designed from the ground up, so to speak, to house the Stargate. A glance around the table told Russo that the rest of the council all knew it would be something to do with the gate as well, and that all were watching with interest to see what the man was going to propose.

"I propose that we move up our timetable for moving the Stargate from its current, temporary home to Alphonsus Base," Robinson replied. "Thus, allowing us to begin expanding our Stargate operations which would allow us to begin keeping a closer eye on the actions of the Goa'uld, allowing us to react if they begin showing signs of turning a serious military eye towards Earth.

"Plus, from General Rodriquez's report the Goa'uld Empire is currently gearing up for war with the Zentraedi who've already shown themselves to be extremely hostile towards us. Increasing covert off world activities through the gate would let us observe that war as well which could provide invaluable information on the Zentraedi's numbers and tactics."

"Increasing our Stargate operations would also let us begin setting up a few ark colonies out system," General Takashi said thoughtfully. "That way if our defences are breached and the worst happens our people will still have a future."

"While a sound idea how will we ensure that one of these ark colonies will not be established on a Goa'uld world," Russo asked though he was intensely interested in the concept of the ark colonies. There were many of his backers who would love to get construction contracts for everything that the colonists would need as everything from basic infrastructure would need to be constructed from the ground up. While they wouldn't be able to charge exorbitant prices for things like homes – they needed homes, farms and so on said colonies to be affordable to the common man after all not just the super-rich – the sheer volumes of work that would be required building everything from fresh water supplies to housing, from power plants to sewers and waste treatment facilities would certainly bring in very handsome profits.

"Senator have you forgotten that when we retrieved the Antarctica gate for you we provided you with a number of data files," Hank said. "Among those data files were two complete maps of the Stargate network in this galaxy one being a map of the Goa'uld-explored network the other being the Ancient map of the network as it was when Ancients left this galaxy. Now while it is true that some of those Stargates have been lost or destroyed over time there are many thousands of worlds in this galaxy that the Goa'uld have never found or explored yet. It is a simple matter to compare the maps and determine a list of possible locations."

"So, you did I had forgotten about that," Russo admitted drawing a few snickers from around the table, the military members especially enjoying seeing him admit to having forgotten something for once instead of brushing it off with the usual bluster of a career politician. "So, are we agreed that we make moves to increase our Stargate Operations?" Nods came from all around the table. "Very well I will speak with Secretary General Kohler about gaining the appropriate authorisation to proceed."

"How long would you require to move the gate," Admiral Hayes asked, like Russo he was interested in the concept of setting up colonies – and other outposts – through the Stargate though for a completely different reason. Whereas Russo was no doubt thinking of all the money his corporate backers could make from the construction contracts he saw opportunities to set up additional navy bases off world. Bases that their soon to be hyperspace capable fleet ships would be able to use, drastically increasing their patrol times among other things.

"Two days as we have a shipment of refined naquada due in tomorrow," Robinson replied. "Once the gate has been transported to the Alphonsus facilities I estimate that we should have Stargate Command at least partially operational within a fortnight."

"Why only partially," Russo asked.

"We're still in the middle of recruiting and training personnel for the off-world teams," Robinson explained, "especially as we're having to train everyone to use the new Gladius armour and AR-3 rifles. And that's taking time. At present we only have twelve teams fully ready for operations."

"What about vehicles?"

"They're progressing well Senator. From what Doctor Carpenter's reports say we should be ready to begin testing the Stargate Assault Vehicle and its variants within a month, two at the worst."

"Very good," Russo replied with a pleased smile. "Now then ladies and gentlemen shall we move onto the next item of business of today's agenda? Admiral Hayes I believe you have a new starship design that you wish to present to us for consideration?"

"That's correct," Hayes confirmed before tapping one of the buttons on his terminal to activate the upgraded holographic display built into the table top. Instantly a hologram blinked into existence over the table showing the image of the new starship. "May I present the result of the advanced destroyer design program."

"Impressive," Russo commented. He meant it too as based on the hologram the new starship would be – once constructed – powerful but with a sleekness and elegance that their current designs lacked. "Tell us about her."

Hayes nodded and did so.

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 **Author Notes: Well that's the prologue for this spin-off story done. I'm hoping to have a new chapter for the main story done soon though with Christmas so close now – and the fact that I still have so much Christmas shopping and so on to do – I cannot guarantee an update there till at least the new year. I will of course try to get it done before hand, but I can make no promises.**


End file.
